dies by
the Almighty the more impressive idea that "he spake and they were
made"--that they were brought into existence by his WORD.(1)

(1) Among the many mediaeval representations of the creation of the
universe, I especially recall from personal observation those sculptured
above the portals of the cathedrals of Freiburg and Upsala, the
paintings on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, and most striking of
all, the mosaics of the Cathedral of Monreale and those in the Capella
Palatina at Palermo. Among peculiarities showing the simplicity of the
earlier conception the representation of the response of the Almighty
on the seventh day is very striking. He is shown as seated in almost the
exact attitude of the "Weary Mercury" of classic sculpture--bent, and
with a very marked expression of fatigue upon his countenance and in the
whole disposition of his body.

The Monreale mosaics are pictured in the great work of Gravina, and in
the Pisa frescoes in Didron's Iconographie, Paris, 1843, p. 598. For
an exact statement of the resemblances which have settled the question
among the most eminent scholars in favour of the derivation of the
Hebrew cosmogony from that of Assyria, see Jensen, Die Kosmologie
der Babylonier, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 304,306; also Franz Lukas, Die
Grundbegriffe in den Kosmographien der alten Volker, Leipsic, 1893,
pp. 35-46; also George Smith's Chaldean Genesis, especially the German
translation with additions by Delitzsch, Leipsic, 1876, and Schrader,
Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, Giessen, 1883, pp. 1-54,
etc. See also Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israel, vol. i, chap i,
L'antique influence babylonienne. For Egyptian views regarding creation,
and especially for the transition from the idea of creation by the hands
and fingers of the Creator to creation by his VOICE and his "word," see
Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of Civilization, pp. 145-146.

Among the early fathers of the Church this general view of creation
became fundamental; they impressed upon Christendom more and more
strongly the belief that the universe was created in a perfectly literal
sense by the hands or voice of God. Here and there sundry theologians of
larger mind attempted to give a more spiritual view regarding some parts
of the creative work, and of these were St. Gregory of Nyssa and St.
Augustine. Ready as they were to accept the literal text of Scripture,
they revolted against the conception of an actual c